Ordered a Mac Pro today, need your help please...

[bsodmike]

Hi all,

My 3-year old G5 bit the dust as one of the processors are faulty and it is out of warranty. Today I purchased a Mac Pro and it'll be here in about 2 weeks.

The replacement cost of (according to my contact at Apple) is that of a new computer, hence getting a Mac Pro; this is all under warranty now and will at least last another 3 years.

(1) Does anyone know if the damaged processor can be removed from the heatsink assembly (liquid cooled unit btw) and if the G5 can boot off the working processor?

(2) Upon receiving the new Mac Pro, I want to put it under a barrage of tests; any that you can recommend? Looking to tax the CPU (8 cores), ECC RAM, northbridge etc...

(3) I live very close to the sea, about a 3 - 5 minute drive. Stuff corrodes like 'mad' here. This is what my G5 looked like about a year ago,



The outside looks fine (light layer of oxidation) but the inside is simply gross. It is VERY humid here, what solutions can you recommend? Dehumidifier or A/C the room 24/7?

I have heard of some people spraying insides of cases with three coats of plasticote ?

As for the G5, I might have a buyer looking to take it as is; if not I might part it out on the SC and mod my c2d PC inside it...

Thanks in advance

Cheers
Mike

[MSIC]

Sorry mike that i have no good ideas for you, but i just wanted to post to say... wow!
I've never heard of living near the sea do this to PC internals.
I have seen how it used to corrode older cars however, so i guess it makes sense, but you'd have thought that i'd be a bigger, more widescale reported issue.

What did they do to cars over the past 10 - 15 years to protect bodywork? Galvanising?
I'm no chemical engineer though, sorry.

[bsodmike]

Yea it's *bad*. I had an InWin (Q500?) case ages ago...completely rusted to the bone. The Lian Li and 2x CM Black Widows I had quite oxidized and even one has started to rust; the mirror polish paint is bubbling with the rust.

No wonder; when I used to game and mod I'd have gfx cards dying every 4-5 months... See that black stuff in the photo near the HDD cage on the right? Well, that's dust + pollution for you. Unlike dust in London (more a fine grey form of dust), here it becomes a black sticky substance; cables and stuff can get ruined quite easily and fans get clogged quite easily. Forget using filters, they get gummed up in no time.

I am surprised the G5 worked this long hmm. Last week it started doing kernel panics 4-5 times in a row, then degraded to jamming at the Apple boot screen. Guess the CPU just bit the dust at that point.

[DR]

I believe you can switch it to a single CPU in the G5

You can buy spares for them easily - might be worth trying to fix it - I know how you like to hack things up

You can easily upgrade the MacPro - I've done GFX, Ram, CPU's, HDD and Optical drive

[DR]

I used these guys:

http://www.applemacparts.co.uk/store/

[bsodmike]

I believe you can switch it to a single CPU in the G5

You can buy spares for them easily - might be worth trying to fix it - I know how you like to hack things up

You can easily upgrade the MacPro - I've done GFX, Ram, CPU's, HDD and Optical drive

Thanks David; the hacking up is only 'last' resort

[DR]

Worse case you could make it in to a something totally off the wall if its dead

[SiM]

Worse case you could make it in to a something totally off the wall if its dead

Like a toilet roll dispenser?

On a serious note, you would probably get a fair bit ebaying it for spares and repairs...

[Mike Fishcake]

I used these guys:

http://www.applemacparts.co.uk/store/

I second that - when I worked in Hardware Maintenance, I found them a brilliant and knowledgeable company, and when we couldn't work out how to repair something, they repaired loads of stuff for us at a reasonable (for Apple) price, including iBooks, powerbooks, a G5 iMac and more that I can't think of at the moment.

Some parts on their store can be stupidly expensive, but I'm assuming that's because it's apple rather than an insane profit margin on their part.

[bsodmike]

I believe you can switch it to a single CPU in the G5

You can buy spares for them easily - might be worth trying to fix it - I know how you like to hack things up

You can easily upgrade the MacPro - I've done GFX, Ram, CPU's, HDD and Optical drive

David; it looks like I am out of luck. I gave applemacparts a call and spoke with them and the gentlemen was kind enough to confirm that the mainboard in the Dual 2.7 GHz G5 is unique to the 'processor module' - it also makes sense as the liquid cooler is sealed into the processor module. The local apple tech also confirmed the above.

applemacparts quote a replacement cost of £850 + VAT for the processor module, which is more than what I was quoted locally. Still, either way this replacement amounts to a new entry level iMac for a machine that will still have no warranty after the repair.

I guess that I will either sell it for spares (part it out) and keep the case for a mac PC mod such as this, or sell it as is to someone who might be interested locally. 'dead' G5s seem to be all the rage on the 'bay and they seem to fetch about £300 or so.

Interestingly though, the mainboard alone is worth about £580 + VAT @ applemacparts... *hmm*. Thanks for the help...

[Spud1]

Good choice with the Mac Pro Mike - its *so* much faster than the G5, and pretty much anything else in its class imo. Best value for money too in the apple range imo..I couldn't build a machine of the same spec for anything like what Apple are asking.

As for "tests" to prove how good it is..these are what I did when I got mine (aside from being amazed at how quiet it was).

Video encoding - There is a thread on hexus somewhere with a good benchmark test for HD video encoding, and it compares your results to other peoples machines. The mac pro will come out on top

Compiling - if your a programmer, try compiling an application..to illustrate the difference, one project i'm working on took approx 40-60 seconds to compile and link everything on my old computer, and now on the mac pro is takes about 5 seconds. Thats an example with Visual Studio in Vista x64, but you get similar results with Xcode too.

Gaming - Try a CPU heavy game like FSX on max settings..smooth as butter.

Multi-Multi-Tasking - Another area where this machine really shines..you can load seemingly endless numbers of applications without noticing a slowdown. Great if you are a fan of spaces and expose, as you genuinely can have almost everything you need up and running on one desktop.

One thing I will reccomend though is to get at least 8gb of ram - the 2gb you get as standard isn't really enough. I have 4GB in mine at the moment but really I think 8gb is the minimum if you are doing any of the above regularly. OCW in the USA have some of the best prices for ram..i've not found anywhere in the UK or EU that has a "reasonable" price on apple approved ram

[Ramedge]

I know that your now without a computer but could you not of held out a little?
The mac pro 3,1 is just at the end of its life cycle. Soon to be replaced.
I brought all my macs under the HE scheme although I am no longer a student, always worth a try to get your 17% off

[moonstar]

There are many in the elec-bestseller.com. Could you be kindly to have a look on them? They are much much much cheaper than that on the market, my friend.

[bsodmike]

Thanks Spud I might be seeing a bit of silver lining on Monday; a potential local buyer interested in the G5 for about 500quid as is, and I might even flip my 23" display for the same amount - reinvest in a 'new' 23" display if it goes through and this way both the display and Mac Pro will be covered for 3-years under warranty.

If not, I will go the route of repairing the dying CCFL in my 23" Cinema HD and use my Dell 24" that will arrive in about 3 weeks via sea mail.

Cheers for the hints on 'stress' testing it. I think there might be a 'super pi' test for OS X. I do quite a bit with HD video and play a lot of 720p TV shows in VLC. I will look to get some more RAM as well

I know that your now without a computer but could you not of held out a little?
The mac pro 3,1 is just at the end of its life cycle. Soon to be replaced.
I brought all my macs under the HE scheme although I am no longer a student, always worth a try to get your 17% off

Actually, I am using my MacBook Pro...and I have a 2.8 GHz IMac in storage in London (which I will bring back home in January or so). With the demise of my G5, it brings my main 'server'/torrent/leeching machine to a grind and needs to be replaced ASAP.

As for tech 'lifespan' - there will ALWAYS be something fast and new in a couple weeks time; this is why I've gotten a good starting point to keep me covered for the next three years - heck, my G5 lasted that much and I didn't complain

With all the upgrade options as well, this machine should keep me quite occupied!

[DR]

Thanks Spud I might be seeing a bit of silver lining on Monday; a potential local buyer interested in the G5 for about 500quid as is, and I might even flip my 23" display for the same amount - reinvest in a 'new' 23" display if it goes through and this way both the display and Mac Pro will be covered for 3-years under warranty.

If not, I will go the route of repairing the dying CCFL in my 23" Cinema HD and use my Dell 24" that will arrive in about 3 weeks via sea mail.

Cheers for the hints on 'stress' testing it. I think there might be a 'super pi' test for OS X. I do quite a bit with HD video and play a lot of 720p TV shows in VLC. I will look to get some more RAM as well



Actually, I am using my MacBook Pro...and I have a 2.8 GHz IMac in storage in London (which I will bring back home in January or so). With the demise of my G5, it brings my main 'server'/torrent/leeching machine to a grind and needs to be replaced ASAP.

As for tech 'lifespan' - there will ALWAYS be something fast and new in a couple weeks time; this is why I've gotten a good starting point to keep me covered for the next three years - heck, my G5 lasted that much and I didn't complain

With all the upgrade options as well, this machine should keep me quite occupied!

Yep your right - at the end of the day we know there is going to be an i7 based MacPro coming out soon - it's also fair to say that Apple products hold their price well so no doubt you will be able to sell your one (since it's not bottom of the range) for a pretty strong price via eBay or other places and get the new one.

I started with a stock one back in March and it's been upgraded along the way - you can't put more in it bar ram and *slightly* bigger HDD's and I'm not using anywhere near the power it has - but it does feel good having the performance there should I need/want it.

I am keen to see if they bring it out in a new form factor.

Spud is spot on right about the bang4buck with the MacPro they are impressive machines and not that expensive - certainly don't carry too much Apple Tax...!

[bsodmike]

Talking about form factor, it is great to see how small they have made the PSU this time around in the MP, compared to the huge beast that sat at the bottom of G5's. If they can shrink the vertical height on the MB a bit, they could boast space for 8x HDDs.

Some might think this is OTT, but considering its RAID capabilities and the need for more storage these days...we might see it. Apple has made it quite clear that the MPs have 'double' of everything the G5 had...